Mackinac Island

We went on our Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw) adventure yesterday and had a great time, so I wanted to blog about it right away. 

Due to a mix up, we had booked our hotel (in Mackinaw City) for Friday night instead of Saturday night, so we left around 5 for our four hour drive. We were incredibly packed in the Enclave, with five adults and two babies, and we were so glad that we happened to have Jordan's parent's top carrier bag so we could load the roof with two pack n plays and other luggage. What a lucky thing that was!

The babies were really good on the drive. Logan watched two movies, played with his cars, and chatted. Heidi slept a lot. We finally got to our hotel at like 10:15. I was impressed with the hotel until we realized that our room was in the add on building right above the indoor pool. Morgan and I took the kids up first and we had to go through a catwalk that connected the nice building to the other building (which was deserted). It was a little creepy to be over there by ourselves. Also, it smelled like chlorine. But it was a place to sleep, and it was fine. 

The breakfast was yummy in the morning, and at 9:30 we got on the ferry to head over to the island. Yay! 

Here's the crew except me. Logan, Jordan, Adam (Morgan's bro-in-law), Heidi, Morgan, and Chase.

Here we are leaving the dock. We took Shepler's Ferry.

After we took off, they announced that we might get wet if we were sitting in the back left. Holy cow, that's where we were sitting. The spray started going up and we were getting very wet! Logan and I hid under my jacket. Chase got really wet. I'm not sure if you can see in the picture though. He was a really good sport about it.

My friend Brenna had keyed me in that some of the ferry tours go under the Mackinac bridge, but you have to check and see which ones. We were lucky enough to make it to one of those tours and so we were able to go under the bride. It was really cool!

The bridge is five miles long and connects to the upper peninsula of Michigan.

On the island, there are no cars, so people either walk, ride bikes, or take horse carriage rides. When we got on the island, we took walked down main street and then walked along part of the rim of the island. This side of the island had really calm water.

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Logan was pretty content in his stroller, which I was very glad about because he had to stay in it most of the day. 

We got to see the Mackinac Arch, even though we didn't want to climb up all the stairs with the babies, so we just walked around to see it from the bottom.

By then we were getting hungry, so we walked up and down the street looking for somewhere to eat. Chase, Morgan, and Adam got burritos and Jordan and I got sandwiches, and then we met up at this big grassy park. We let Logan out of the stroller to chase the seagulls around and then just relaxed for a bit.

Logan thought it was really funny when I would put my hands over his ears and move his head around. 

After lunch, Jordan and I decided to rent bikes. We were hoping that Logan would take a nap while riding around in the trailer, and he did! He fell asleep right away.

We rode on the other side of the island we hadn't seen yet, and it was so pretty. The water was much more rough on that side, and it was gorgeous to ride by the water.

I hadn't ridden a bike in 15 years and it was really fun! I think I want to get a bike and a trailer for Logan now. Jordan's been wanting me to ride with him for a while so he's excited that I'm thinking I want to do that now.

We finished up our bike ride and met back up with Morgan, Chase, Heidi, and Adam. Morgan found a souvenir, some really cute magnets, and I wanted fudge. Fudge is a big deal on the island. There are over a dozen fudge shops. We all went in on a buy six slices for $40 deal, so we'd each get 3. Jordan and I got salted caramel, turtle, and peanut butter chocolate. Then we stopped to change Logan's diaper and then head back to the ferry. Unfortunately, we got to the ferry right as it was pulling away. Somehow I'd ended up with the other ferry line's brochure, so we were late, and the next boat didn't leave for forty minutes. Oh well. So we hung out in line and then eventually got on the boat. About halfway back to the mainland, I realized that we didn't have our fudge. We had probably left it when we changed Logan's diaper. I was so sad! It was kind of ridiculous though. It had kind of been the trip of many errors--Jordan had booked the hotel for the wrong night, the hotel was kind of weird, I had the wrong time for the ferry back home, and then we left the fudge on the island. Jordan offered to go get me more fudge (they sell it in Mackinaw City as well as on the island) but I didn't want to spend any more money or take the time to get the fudge anyway.

We had a quick dinner at Burger King, then packed back in the car and took off. Heidi slept for most of the time, Logan watched a movie and then fell asleep, but then he woke up when we had about an hour left and started crying. He really doesn't like sleeping in his car seat anymore. He will only sleep for an hour exactly. Anyway, he cried and cried, and Heidi woke up after a half hour of Logan crying and then they were both crying on and off. We finally got home around 11. So the entire trip took about 30 hours. We agreed that next time we will just pay for a second hotel night, because it felt very rushed and we were so tired at the end. But it was still super fun! 

Oh, and at church today Morgan came over and put a package of fudge in my diaper bag. I protested but she insisted. They are so sweet to sacrifice some of their fudge for me. It is super yummy. Thank you, Morgan and Chase! :)